Inspiron 530 will not boot even into safe mode.

Hi DrMenard,

Please remove the Service Tag from public view as it is considered personal information

As the system is not able to boot into safe mode, it appears to be an issue with corrupt OS files. It is strange that a single hard drive is showing two different serial numbers. However, as the diagnostics have passed, you may go ahead and restore the computer to factory settings. You may refer to article Here.

Note : Restoring the computer back to factory settings will lead to complete data loss. If you have important data on system, you may contact a local technician at your place to backup the important data.

Please reply if you have any further questions.

JY392 is not a service tag its a Dell Part number ASSY LBL,BRND,FRT,MNTW,530.

CTRL F11 is for XP for VERY OLD Dells. The Inspiron 530 would have F8 factory Restore.

Alright, I'll try the restore.  Thanks for the advice on removing the Service Tag, too; I didn't know that.

JY392 is not a service tag its a Dell Part number ASSY LBL,BRND,FRT,MNTW,530.

I had already removed the Service Tag by the time you read this.  That's the serial #.  Anyway...

CTRL F11 is for XP for VERY OLD Dells. The Inspiron 530 would have F8 factory Restore.

My computer is like 4 years old.  I tried the Ctrl + F11 and it did not work.  So I tried the F8.  That did bring up an advanced menu, but no repair or restore option was there.  Just the different Safe Modes, Last Known Config., Debugging Mode, etc.  But nothing for Repair or restore.

Any other ideas?

Hi DrMenard,

If you are not able to access the recovery partition, you might need to manually re-install the OS using Dell OS re-installation DVD's. You may refer to link Here for step by step instructions on manual OS re-installation. Once the OS is installed, you may install the drivers from Here -> Enter the service tag of your system ->  Select the operating system -> Download/install the drivers in correct order as given Here.

Please reply if you have any questions.

I do not get anything from Ctrl + F11.  And this is what F8 gives me:

Safe Mode

Safe Mode With Networking

Safe Mode With Command Prompt

Enable Boot Logging

Enable VGA Mode

Last Known Good Configuration

Directory Services Restore Mode (Windows Domain Controllers Only)

Debugging Mode

Start Windows Normally

Reboot

Return to OS Choices Menu

There is NOTHING that says, Repair Computer or anything like that.  So from that, I selected Directory Services Restore Mode, thinking maybe this will take me to a restore option.  It asks me to select an OS, giving me the only choice of XP Home Edition.  I press Enter to accept, and it tries booting in Safe Mode: Directory Services Mode and fails, taking me back to same ol' black screen with "We apologize for any inconvenience, but an error has occurred" page.

I was afraid of that - I have the two disks with all the drivers on them, but I do not have an OS reinstall disk.  I don't suppose there is somewhere I can DL it from?

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Hello, I am also having a similar problem. Actually, my problem is pretty much identical to this one. I've had my Inspiron 530s for close to 5 years, think, and have never had it do anything like this before. I only have one disk for it. The disk i have identifies itself as "Drivers and User Documentation" If it came with anymore disks, I have since lost them. I suppose a factory restore is my only choice, but it not really a big deal because I don't have anything important stored on my hard drive. I never have been overly trusting of computers that way, thank goodness. Is there a way out for me as well? Thank you for any help you may be able to offer.

       -Randy Joe                                                                                                                                                          

Failing power supplies can cause these boot problems.

This would also be a good time to consider migrating to a newer version of Windows like Windows 7.